As school districts prepare for deep budget cuts, a Denver Post analysis of spending at the state’s three largest districts found millions of dollars being spent with limited oversight on food, travel and other discretionary items.
Spending on items other than salaries and bonuses by the Jefferson County and Douglas County school districts totaled $106 million and $91 million, respectively, from July 2009 to mid-February this year.
And while the bulk of that money is spent on necessary supplies for maintenance of schools, and for direct classroom expenses (such as books, office supplies and other items), millions are spent annually on restaurants, travel and training.
In Denver Public Schools, district credit cards issued to teachers, principals and administrators were used to charge nearly $20 million in 2009. Again, much of that money, such as for additional books and supplies, was directly used to benefit classrooms.
But the analysis found so much charged in food, entertainment, travel and other discretionary items that on Friday the DPS superintendent issued new rules for credit-card holders in response to The Post’s findings.
Among the expenses buried in the thousands of transactions: $270 for scented pencils for a Douglas County school, $1,228 for books at a Denver school from a company that uses color-scheme psychology, and $4,113 for doughnuts and burritos for breakfast meetings at a Denver high school.
District officials defended most of the expenses as legitimate costs in the complicated business of educating thousands of students.
Educators need training; conferences typically are held out of state or in resort areas; catered meals feed students and attract parents for parent-teacher conferences and other after-school events.
Yet, while districts are paring their budgets for next year and laying off teachers in anticipation of a 6 percent to 8 percent cut in state education funding, greater scrutiny is being given to school spending.
Jefferson County Public Schools is expecting to cut at least $20 million for the 2010-11 school year, Denver at least $30 million and Douglas County at least $31 million.
After queries from The Post, DPS officials Friday sent an e-mail to principals and staff announcing cost controls.
“Effective immediately, we will be restricting food purchases and travel expenses,” the message said.
Food may still be purchased for community meetings but no longer for internal staff meetings. Administrators are asking staffers to participate in “virtual conferences” rather than paying for out-of-state travel.
Increasing transparency
Jefferson County schools last year spent $20,000 to create an online search engine that shows district expenditures. Douglas County this month revealed its “financial transparency” website that also lists expenses.
A bipartisan bill pending in the legislature would require every Colorado school district in the next three years to post all of their expenses online.
That’s what Natalie Menten has been doing for the past few years, posting expense reports from agencies such as the city of Lakewood, West Metro Fire district, Jefferson County schools and DPS.
In 2008, Menten sought out Jefferson County schools’ credit-card expenses because the district was asking voters to approve a $350 million bond sale and $34 million mill-levy override.
“They claimed there was no wasteful spending at all,” Menten said. “Every penny was going to the right place. I wanted to see what we were really spending.”
Among other things, Menten said, she found district employees had spent $10,000 on Starbucks and $500 for flip-flop shoes.
The district bristled when Menten published her results without any context or explanation, said Lorie Gillis, the district’s chief financial officer.
“We should have provided additional context; otherwise it opened the door for misinformation,” Gillis said.
The district decided to develop an online program to provide easy access to financial records that includes explanations. The website went live in July, bringing more scrutiny and self-regulation.
“People are much more reluctant to buy food for meetings,” Gillis said. “When there is onsite training, people get a notice that they need to bring their lunch. All travel is to be reviewed by a cabinet person. We also are doing more internal reviews. If there is anything that looks funny, we will be calling schools.”
Gillis last week answered several questions from The Denver Post about items found on the website.
• Standley Lake High School officials attended staff development training in Chicago, Houston and Florida. Gillis said the school is transitioning into an International Baccalaureate program. “We do need to have our staff trained in order to implement systems and programs,” she said. “We are an educational organization, and we need to make sure we are educated.”
• A half-dozen people will attend the Alliance 2010 conference in San Antonio between today and March 3, which Gillis explained is an information technology conference to help the district prepare for coming computer upgrades.
• Employees spent $2,484 at Starbucks Coffee since July, something Gillis could not readily explain.
“We have been really clear with staff on the judgment factor on going to Starbucks,” she said. “We have encouraged people to not spend taxpayer dollars on things like Starbucks. But it happens.”
Jefferson County schools over just the past eight months spent $580,000 on discretionary food and drink outside of the lunches provided to students.
Charges among districts
In Denver, where over the past year five accounts were suspended for questionable charges, taxpayers spent $487,000 for outside food and drink in 2009.
Douglas County schools’ discretionary food purchases are part of $1.7 million the school district spent on travel, registrations and entrance fees.
The three districts spent a combined $8,287 on Starbucks and $112,870 on pizza.
Two favorite caterers were Denver-based Udi’s Foods and Jason’s Deli, which got orders totaling about $90,000 and $68,000, respectively, from the three districts.
“You can’t justify everything to every taxpayer because we all come from different circumstances,” Gillis said.
In Denver, charges vary dramatically from school to school.
Staff and administrators at Abraham Lincoln High School, for example, charged almost $161,000 on credit cards last year, compared with $13,840 for North High.
“Everything that we have paid for, there is a rationale behind it,” said Lincoln’s principal, Antonio Esquibel. “Every year our budget is $8 million a year. The (credit card) expenses amount to (a fraction) of that entire budget. I wish we had more money to spend on our faculty or students.”
Lincoln’s charges included lodging for staff development conferences at the MGM Grand and Harrah’s Hotel in Las Vegas; $1,250 for seven visits to Cafe Chihuahua restaurant; and an $800 ethnic food experience for 100 freshmen at Mataam Fez Moroccan Restaurant.
Teachers and staff also were treated to an end-of-the-year celebration at Dave & Buster’s restaurant, for which the staff paid half the price and the school pitched in $1,200.
“It’s not like we do this every day,” Esquibel said. “It’s for specific purposes. To me, that is reasonable. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
Ford Elementary in Montbello had the fifth-highest amount charged to purchasing cards among DPS schools, $89,475, which included $1,200 for “Positively Mary” books — a multicultural program based on color schemes — and numerous charges for items from The Home Depot and American Furniture Warehouse.
Ford’s principal submitted receipts showing he bought five area rugs for classrooms, a sofa for his office, a computer desk and a bookcase for the school. An administrator Friday walked through the school after The Post’s inquiries to verify the purchases.
“These are extremely challenging financial times, and while we want to empower our school leaders and department leaders with decision-making authority, we need to ensure that all our funds are being spent in ways that will most directly benefit students,” said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg.
“Cost of doing business”
In September, Douglas County’s interim superintendent, Steve Herzog, sent an e-mail to district staff telling them to curtail spending with the budget cuts looming.
Specifically, Herzog said no more out-of-state professional development, no facility rentals and minimal food purchases.
“We have cut $50 million over the past three years,” said Susan Meek, district spokeswoman. “It’s a continual message that our system has been saying.”
Douglas County schools’ new financial transparency website lists four funds, which accounted for $90.6 million in expenses since July.
Under the government fund for travel, the district spent $913,169 since July.
Renaissance Magnet School, an Outward Bound school, spent $88,332. The school’s leaders said, “The learning expeditions serve as the primary way of organizing social studies and science curriculum.”
The district’s information technology department spent $37,416 in travel, lodging and meals at various conferences and training sessions across the country. The training is necessary, the district says, to stay up to date on rapidly evolving technologies for its computer network services.
Douglas County staffers spent about $1,150 on Starbucks coffee — including $350 in gift cards, coffee for staff-training sessions and beverages to support a crisis team dealing with a student’s death.
“You are looking at an organization with a half-billion-dollar budget, 6,000 employees serving a large community of students,” Meek said. “We are a large business. There are expectations to provide a quality education to students. When we don’t deliver, we hear that. These charges are a cost of doing business to serve our community.”
Some people may not agree with each charge, she said.
“That’s when we can have that discussion and you change the practice.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
Burt Hubbard: 303-954-5107 or bhubbard@denverpost.com
